


Like Rust

by waftimah



Category: Eroica Yori Ai o Komete | From Eroica with Love
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-06
Updated: 2013-10-06
Packaged: 2017-12-28 15:12:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,676
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/993394
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/waftimah/pseuds/waftimah
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Times change.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Like Rust

Klaus has to touch Eroica the first time they meet. He resolves not to, but it’s cold and the thief has a warm back, no matter his perverted, idiotic personality. He’ll soon be in a jail cell, anyway, and then there will certainly be no more of the …touching. Unless it’s a punch, of course.

***

There isn’t much time to think on the roof of the train. Klaus can’t afford for the mission to fail, so he can’t afford for Eroica to die - it‘s as simple as that. Shooting the bomb off the bridge is hard enough without thinking about the hands above his waist. Even if they are clenching tighter than they should be.

***

He loses track of the other touches Eroica manages to steal throughout their annoying, unbelievably coincidental meetings. Klaus’s lips are at least safe from the damn pervert; up until Paris, that is.

It’s Klaus’s mission and Eroica has nothing to do with it, but that doesn’t stop the thief from interfering, of course. Klaus asked him why, and the thief said “he was worried about him,” as if he needed a friggin’ nursemaid or the blonde pervert could actually do anything to help. The memory is almost enough to make him snort, but that’s when he hears the guard up ahead and Eroica grabs his arm, drags him into the dark alley. “I love these kinds of missions,” he whispers, slumped against the wall, and his smile is apologetic. “I’m afraid you aren’t going to like it much, though.” Before Klaus can stop him, Eroica uses one hand to place Klaus’s arm around him, and uses the other to grab his tie and pull him down to meet his lips.

Klaus would say it didn’t feel like what he was expecting, but obviously he’d never imagined anything perverted like that. Eroica doesn’t kiss like a girl, like one might expect of a fop; he kisses with skill and finesse, but like a man who knows what he wants and plans on getting it. Klaus’s instincts simultaneously tell him to play along and to run away, so he settles on merely standing there, shocked.

It seems like a long time before Klaus remembers to listen for the guard. When he does, he can hear steps fading in the distance, and he realizes that at some point he’s used his free hand to put his weight on the wall, trapping Eroica’s golden curls against its grimy grey. He snarls and roughly pushes the thief away. He’d kill him right now, but the sound of Eroica’s body hitting the ground might be enough to bring the guard back.

***

Klaus can remember the specifics of every mission, but the conversations blend and mix together. “When have I ever given you reason to believe that I would have any interest in you?”

Eroica sighs and sits forward, propping his elbows on his knees. “You’ve really never been in love, Major? You don’t know what it’s like, feeling happy just to see someone, to touch them…?

Klaus blinks, and then lights his cigarette. “I don’t have time for such nonsense.”

Eroica smiles. “Of course not,” he says. “I’m afraid there are some things about each other which we’ll never understand.”

“Then why do you keep trying?”

Eroica smiles and winks. “I always get what I want, remember?”

Klaus scowls. Eroica is an idiot; he thinks Klaus is made of ice, that enough heated glances and warm embraces will wear him down. But Klaus is made of iron, and iron won’t bend because of time alone.

***

They’re forced to share a bed not long after, but instead of a bed it’s a tent. Eroica has fulfilled his contract and together they‘ve destroyed the top secret files that were their mission objective. Unfortunately, they got captured, and in the process of stealing a helicopter and escaping Eroica managed to get himself shot, the idiot. The enemy base had been in the middle of the desert and the helicopter didn’t have enough fuel to get them to the nearest town. It wasn’t even equipped with more than the most basic supplies, to Klaus’s disgust.

Eroica’s wound is around the ribs, but the bullet thankfully missed his lungs and his heart. Barely. Klaus has to use his undershirt to bandage it, glad that the pervert is knocked out and unable to talk, for once. Still, the loss of blood is worrisome. Eroica’s not in immediate danger of dying, but he’ll need more advanced care within a day or two.

Klaus lights up a cigarette and uses the radio to call the Alphabet. He’s able to give them a general idea of where they are, but it’s a big desert and it might be some time before they’re found. He scowls. If Eroica dies due to their incompetence, Alaska will be too good for them. One of the poles, maybe.

“Major?” Eroica’s voice calls from the tent, weak.

Klaus grounds his cigarette in the sand and walks over, lifting a flap to see inside. “Shut up, idiot. Get some rest.”

Eroica smiles. “Glad to know I’m not… going to die so soon,” he says, talking with obvious effort.

Klaus snorts. “Can’t get rid of you that easy.”

Eroica breathes deep, and closes his eyes for a moment. “You must be tired…”

Klaus isn’t sure when the last time he slept was. “Don’t be stupid. As if I’d sleep so close to a perverted queer-”

“Guess I’ll have to sleep outside, then,” Eroica says, and starts to sit up.

Klaus takes a step forward before he can stop it himself. “You friggin’ idiot! Do you want to kill yourself?!” Eroica stops, but he stares at Klaus as if challenging him. Klaus stares back, able to imagine how easily the wrong move could cause blood to start spreading across those ridiculous clothes, and then snaps, “Fine, you stupid fop! I wouldn’t want to waste a good undershirt on a dead man.”

Eroica glances down at his bandage in surprise and blushes. Klaus scowls. He settles down in the tent, but as far as he can get from Eroica. “Don’t try anything perverted or I’ll put another bullet in you,” he warns, and Eroica doesn’t answer.

It’s quiet for awhile, and then Eroica asks, “A… lullaby, Major?” Klaus sings a military song, instead, but it’s slower-paced and Dorian doesn’t complain. When it’s over, neither of them say anything and he risks a glance at Dorian. There’s just enough light to make out that his chest is rising and falling, but not with the evenness of sleep. Klaus still doesn’t speak, but he starts the song over again.

When he wakes up the next morning, Eroica has stayed well on his side of the tent. Klaus feels an emotion, but he squashes it down before he can recognize it as disappointment. It’s good the idiot didn’t risk his health over his perverted nonsense, but nonetheless, it was cold last night.

***

He isn’t sure when, but at some point he asks Lord Gloria if he keeps the art he steals. Eroica has been flirting less, he’s been yelling less. It’s almost a truce.

“Most of it, no,” Eroica admits, taking a sip of his wine. “I sell it when I become bored.”

He pauses and looks at Klaus as if he’s searching for something. After a moment, he crosses his legs and gazes at Klaus in a way that makes his skin crawl. “There is one piece that I intend to keep forever, though.”

“The pumpkin doesn’t belong to you yet,” the Major snarls, pointing with his glass.

“Actually, I was thinking of the most beautiful tank.”

Truces were overrated.

***

“Klaus, look out!” Eroica yells, and tackles him to the ground as the ground explodes in front of him. Debris is falling all around them; a piece of rock hits him close above the eye, and he can feel the blood welling up. A good soldier should react at once to the possibility that the bomb was part of an ambush, but he can only stare at Dorian on his chest, the blue eyes filled with worry and the curls a mess around his face. “Are you hurt?” he asks, looking at Klaus’s forehead with more anxiety than the major has ever seen him display.

Klaus prepares to shove him off, but the blue eyes don’t let him go. “Are you alright, sir?” one of the Alphabets asks, somewhere behind him, and that gives him the opportunity he needs.

“Fine,” he snaps, getting up and momentarily ignoring the Earl. “Find out if there’s any more.”

“Yes, sir.” B salutes and leaves. Klaus stomps back towards the car - he has a good feeling about who was responsible for that, and he’d like to pay them a visit. Eroica follows behind him.

It’s not noticeable until they reach the car, but he keeps looking at Klaus with those big eyes, as if he’ll disappear if he’s not watched. Klaus almost yells at him, but he can’t make himself do it.

As he shifts gear, before he can force it back down, he has the oddest feeling. Looking at those eyes, it’s as though he and Lord Gloria were fighting a battle, and he’s just given up enough ground to lose the war.

***

Soon after that, Klaus has too much time and begins to think. The entire western spy network believes they’re together. The Chief tells him he’s being a tease. The Alphabets treat Eroica’s men as if they were friends, or at least comrades in arms. He’s surrounded by perverts and queers, and he’s the only one in Germany who gives a fuck.

Dorian at least has the kindness to look surprised, when Klaus knocks on his door, or maybe it was bravado all along. “I don’t love you,” Klaus says. “I’m not sure that I even like you. But I… want to know what you think you mean, with this “love” you keep throwing at me.”

Dorian acts as if it’s the most romantic thing he’s ever heard.


End file.
